This invention relates generally to the field of wireless video transmission devices and methods. More particularly, this invention relates to providing security for confidential information that can be captured by such wireless video transmission devices.
Cellular telephones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and other portable electronic devices have become fixtures of everyday life over the last several years. As they evolve, prices continue to fall while the device""s capabilities have expanded. Currently, such devices can be used in many places to make wireless connection to the Internet, play games as well as carry out email and other text messaging functions. It can readily be anticipated that as time goes by, the capabilities of such devices will continue to expand as prices continue to fall making use of such devices a permanent part of people""s daily lives.
Wireless two-way communication products are emerging which will enable users to have portable live video and still image transmission capabilities. For example, cellular telephones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) are being developed with an integrated camera and display to provide video telephone calls and image capture. Similarly, digital cameras will likely be equipped with wireless transceivers, enabling them to transfer images to other devices for printing, storage, and sharing. Such capability is likely to become more prevalent in the future and it can reasonably be expected that the resolution of the images captured will be enhanced over time. It is also expected, due to memory constraints in portable devices, that still images will be captured then transmitted over wireless networks and the Internet for remote storage. This can lead to problems that will be described hereinafter.